This invention relates to an improved quartz crystal oscillator for a timepiece, and more particularly, the instant invention relates to a bifurcated mounting plate for a tuning fork-type crystal vibrator employed therein.
In prior timepiece devices which employ oscillators including a quartz crystal vibrator, the vibrator element has been suspended on wire supports within a hermetically sealed oscillator envelope. The wire supports have been connected to the sealed oscillator terminal tag. This mounting is troublesome, costly, enlarges the over-all size of the oscillator, and requires considerable assembly skill. Alternatively, the crystal vibrator has been mounted in parallel to the oscillator terminal tag on a finger extending upwardly therefrom within the oscillator envelope. However, it has been necessary to provide the crystal vibrator element with opposed notches for thereby making the vibrator tines independent of each other. The notches are difficult to make and weaken the crystal, thereby making it incapable of withstanding severe external shock.
There is, therefore, a need for a compact, impact-resistant oscillator and a vibrator mounting therefor which is inexpensive, easy to manufacture, capable of withstanding severe external shock, and which may be employed in a compact oscillator.